𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Britain’s survival is in peril if the country continues ploughing billions of taxpayers’ cash into benefits instead of urgently rebuilding the nation’s armed forces, the Government has been warned.

The country’s welfare bill is on course to rocket by £18billion in a single year – enough to fund 15 advanced Royal Navy frigates, 220 fighter jets or 250,000 soldiers, according to a new analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, warned: “The explosion in the welfare budget at the expense of investing properly in our defence risks the very existence of our country.”

The size of the UK’s regular army has crashed from 104,254 in April 2012 to just 74,273 in October last year. The conflict in Iran and the war in Ukraine have triggered a surge in concern that Britain lacks the strength to deter foes and fight major wars.

The ex-Chief of the General Staff pressed for action to get people off benefits and into jobs, saying: “Focussed programmes to bring more people back into the workforce will be to their social and health benefit and provide the cash necessary to provide properly for our armed forces, the bedrock of our national security.”

The CSJ analysis found the cost of benefits and pensions will climb to around £333billion this year. It warns that “more than four million people now claim universal credit with no requirement to look for work”.

Sir Keir Starmer was humiliated last year when Labour rebels forced the Government to abandon welfare reforms.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, warned: “It is grotesquely irresponsible from the government to be prioritising welfare over the defence of the nation, especially given the immediate and wide-ranging threats to British citizens, British allies and British national interests.”

He called on the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to “show some leadership by bringing forward emergency plans to limit the increase in the welfare budget, and using at least some of that cash for defence”.

The CSJ estimates getting one million people back into work would “boost the public finances by around £18 billion a year through higher tax receipts and lower benefit spending”. It says this would be “enough to fund the entire increase needed to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, give workers a £2,200 tax cut by raising the personal allowance, or build 15 new hospitals”.

The think tank fears the Britain risks drifting into a permanent “sickness economy”.

Joe Shalam, policy director at the CSJ, said: “Britain cannot afford to keep writing off millions of people to long-term welfare while the world becomes more dangerous. Behind these numbers are millions of people with talents and dreams who deserve the chance to gain all the advantages that come with work. We already spend more on health-related benefits than the entire defence budget. Repairing broken Britain and helping people realise their potential is ultimately a matter of national security.”

The CSJ has called for mental health benefits to be restricted to more severe cases in a move it claims would save £7billion. It recommends £1billion is reinvested in “radically expand NHS talking therapies and employment support”.

Alan Mendoza, co-founder of the Henry Jackson Society foreign policy think tank said recent governments have been guilty of “an error of epic proportions” because they were “aware of a worsening strategic picture and did nothing to change the trajectory of military decline”.

He said: “In the current climate of heightened global tension and armed conflict, the welfare-defence ratio is unsustainable for any government that is serious about national security. Given the welfare increase in the coming year alone could fund a significant military boost, the government needs to reverse that process immediately and focus on the frontline security this country needs.”

A Reform UK spokesman said: “This Labour Government and their backbenches seem happy to leave Britain defenceless whilst our welfare bill keeps ballooning out of control. This situation is dangerous and unsustainable.

“Only Reform UK has a serious plan to defuse the benefits bomb and reinvest in the defence of this country after 16 years of near-criminal neglect by Labour and the Conservatives.”

Shadow Defence Secretary, James Cartlidge MP said: “At a time of war on multiple fronts Starmer and Reeves have forced the MoD to focus on pennypinching, instead of rearmament and war readiness. That’s because Labour are prioritising welfare instead over national security.

This shocking new evidence shows that, just as welfare will continue to grow, cuts to defence spending will also continue into next year. This is a total failure of leadership from the PM and is an absolute scandal given the scale of threats we face.

“That’s why we have announced our fully funded plan for 20,000 extra soldiers, including drone tech & equipment, accommodation & training – paid for by being willing to take tough choices on instead, including welfare.”

A Government spokesperson said: “This is a deeply disingenuous report. Well over half of the increase in welfare spending is on pensions, including the triple lock. We are fixing the broken welfare system created by the Conservatives, in which too many people were written off without support – as well as making a generational increase in defence and security investment, as a leader in NATO.”

Lord Dannatt was suspended from the House of Lords for four months in December after he was found to have broken lobbying rules. He said his motivation was “acting in the national interest” but accepted this was no justification for breaching the code of conduct; he added that at “nearly 75 no one is too old to learn lessons”.

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